Ammo price increase

[Redneck with a 40]

I was just on sportsmansguide.com checking on ammo prices, just out of curiosity. My favorite brand, before I started reloading was Fiocchi in 40 S&W. Right now, this ammo is running $235/1000. Just last month, it was $175/1000. I'm glad I am now reloading all of my target ammo, otherwise it would be prohibitively expensive for me to buy factory ammo at that price.

I'm currently reloading 180 grain 40 S&W lead rounds for $110/1000.

 

[Cacique500]

Heard from two dealers that they'll be a 7% increase this month followed by a 7%-10% increase within the next 3 months. Price increase from the distributors.

 

[Ala Dan]

I don't forsee a stopping point in ammo prices~! A lot of factors can
be contributed as the cuz for continous price increases.

 

[Hikingman]

Prices based on...

Primers for those of us handloading are going up, so if the story is across the board then...the cost of loaded ammo will rise.

 

[GTSteve03]

Higher ammo prices mean less people can afford to buy ammo, which equals less people buying/shooting their guns.

If you can't take their guns directly, cut off their ammo supply...

 

[M2 Carbine]

You had better stock up on primers, powder and bullets.
I just bought another 23,000 primers, bullets and powder for a price I would have laughed at eight months ago.

 

[wooderson]

If you can't take their guns directly, cut off their ammo supply...

Yeah, nothing to do with the price of metals or conflicts driving up costs on military caliberas or fuel costs or just the flaky economy (at home and abroad) in general. It's a conspiracy.

 

[2TransAms]

9mm is going for more than .45 did a year ago. Walmart had the last decent price on .45 ammo and now they've jumped up to match everyone else. My 1911's are gonna be hungry if this trend keeps up.

I just bought a Glock 19 (don't tell the guys on 1911forum [but it'll pay for itself right?]) and at the next gun show I'm going to get the cheapest case of 9mm I can find. At least I've still got about 2000 rounds of .45 stocked up. When that runs out I'm going to stand in the intersection with a yellow boot held out and a sign that says "Please help keep your neighborhood safe".

 

[.cheese.]

Copper prices are at a high and rising - and in the case of bullets copper is used both in the case (brass contains copper) and the copper jacket.

That's my best guess as to the reason for the price hike.

 

[2TransAms]

Yeah, nothing to do with the price of metals or conflicts driving up costs on military calibers or fuel costs or just the flaky economy (at home and abroad) in general. It's a conspiracy.

I'm a contractor, and I can tell you that in the last year the price of everything made of metal in the homes we build went waaaay up, especially copper. But with the slower building market, lumber went down! Wooden bullets, anyone?

Oh, and copper has come down some lately. It took a couple weeks to hit the building industry, but a roll of 12/2 wire was $110 at Lowes a few months ago, now it's down to $58. Hopefully that means good news for us shooters down the road.

 

[Art Eatman]

Copper is at $2.62 per pound. For years it tended to be below $1 per pound. Pennies of 1978 vintage and earlier are worth one cent when copper is at $1.22 per pound. (In an effort to avoid Gresham's law, it is now a high-fine crime to melt US coinage.)

The components of powder and priming compound are also higher, and will go higher yet.

I've no idea if the rate of increase will itself increase, but stocking up is wise.

Art

 

[thexrayboy]

The cost of ammo is going up for the same reasons everything else is. Less supply more demand. Every component of ammunition has multiple competitors in the free market economy willing to pay top dollar for that same raw material. Material for virtually every item consumers purchase now in the US costs more every year. For the most part savings realized on the purchase of products originate from either cheaper production costs...i.e. the china syndrome or economies of scale.... the costco solution. Ammo
unfortunately is not immune and ammo makers have to compete for raw material with all the other manufacturers of "essential goods" like IPODS etc.

Such is life in the new economy.

 

[.cheese.]

If only Costco sold ammo..... wouldn't that be the day.

 

[obxned]

Gas used to be 27 cents a gallon, I bought a NIB L W Commander once for less than a HiPoint sells for now. College tuition and medical services have skyrocketed. The 15 cent hamberger at McDungballs is now about a buck and a half. Food, housing, movies, everything is high and getting higher.

Buy whatever ammo you can now, but don't get too upset by the price increases. We have many more important things to worry about.

 

[wooderson]

In the last two days I've cleared out two Wal-Marts of CCI Brass .45 and 9mm. It's cheaper there right now than anywhere online (though not as cheap as the HRer who found .45 for $6.50/box) , and basically the same price as bulk reloads. I'm hoping a few more trips will keep me shooting until I can reload on my own.

 

[sierrabravo45]

AA at Sportsmans Warehouse is 6.99 a box!!! So if I go shoot a round at the trap range it is now $3 to shoot and 7 for ammo!!! I can't afford to shoot trap anymore!!

 

[GTSteve03]

Yeah, nothing to do with the price of metals or conflicts driving up costs on military caliberas or fuel costs or just the flaky economy (at home and abroad) in general. It's a conspiracy.

Indeed, it's all just simple supply-and-demand economics.

Not at all due, I'm sure, to anything like the Government not allowing civilians to buy surplus ammo and destroying it all instead, or preventing importation of cheap overseas ammo due to nebulous evil features like "armor piercing." We currently take in hundreds of billions of dollars of imports from China, and yet ammo is not one of them?

 

[wooderson]

What surplus ammo currently exists for US armed forces? Where is it being destroyed and when? I've seen nothing about these acts.

Where is this 'armor piercing' .45acp and 9mm that we're not allowed to buy that would drive down prices? (nor are 'armor piercing' regulations particularly nebulous - you and I might disagree with the rules, but they are defined - "...a projectile or projectile core which may be used in a handgun and which is constructed entirely ... of tungsten alloys, steel, iron, brass, bronze, beryllium copper or depleted uranium.")

As to buying Chinese ammo in general, you might have noticed that you also can't buy rifles or handguns from Norinco today.

 

[solareclipse]

hm let's see... what's cheaper.. 50$ for half an hour at the range or 50$ worth of movies that last a weekend.



The bleak reality

 

[Sodbuster]

a 7%-10% increase within the next 3 months. Price increase from the distributors.

A lot of us probably know someone in the business, an insider so to speak. The one I know said a couple days ago that there would be a big price increase in June, which jives with the above comment.

 

[1911Tuner]

Ammo Prices

Don't know what to attribute it to, but a case/1,000 of Fiocci .45 ball that I bought in early November for $215 out the door is now 300 bucks+tax.

Primers that I bought last year for 75 dollars a 5,000-count sleeve is 92 dollars. Unique powder that I gave 100 bucks/8 pounds for last summer is a buck and a quarter as of yesterday.

Well...Sarah Brady once said that they may not get the guns, but they'd for damn sure get the ammunition. Looks like she was spot on. All it'll take is a 10-cent per round tax, and we're all gonna be playin Gin Rummy three Saturday afternoons outta four.

Dark days lie ahead...and they're not in the distant future any more.

 

[308win]

I don't know the production capacity of ammunition and component manufacturers. Primers, cases,etc. are a specialized market and my intuition tells me that the current situtation has them all manufacturing at capacity. When the market for munitions softens at the government level we will all be laughing up our sleeves at the deals available (if we live that long).

 

[repo]

Someone should setup a group buy for this

http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?id=1126821&convertTo=USD

 

[Snagglepuss]

2TransAm, Dave will be hearing about the G19 shortly. PS-My first gun was a G19, still have it and still think it is a great gun.

I guess its off to Midway for stock up time. I just ordered 5000 CCI primers from wholesale hunter for 70 bucks, maybe I should have bought 10,000.

 

[Cortland]

Price of lead over the last four years:

Price of copper over the last four years:

The Chinese are buying all the lead the can for batteries and electronics. Prices will eventually stabilize, hopefully subsequent to new production capacity.